The Path to Immortality
by JustAlilBlue
Summary: AU I suppose. Percy on a self-imposed quest to become immortal. No camps. No great prophecy. Just fun. Short first chapter as an introduction.
1. Intro

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own PJO.**

Immortality. It was something I had wanted my whole life. Ever since my mom had told me of my father's identity, I wanted to do something worthy of joining him in Atlantis forever. Sure it had been done before but that just made it harder now. Zeus favored his children as immortals over those of his brothers so there was another roadblock. But it would be worth it, right? To spend eternity young, and be with the father I never truly knew and could never truly know as a mortal being. The ancient laws were strict and ruthless, set up by the fates to keep demigods as toys for their schemes. But I never was great at following the rules, so I trained from the age I could understand what training was for. I studied the myths and monsters and deities; I learned how to fight. I learned the fear of losing someone I loved, when my mom's clear sight brought her too close to the world I would have to live and fight and survive in on my own eventually. I felt the satisfaction of revenge on the beast that had hurt her. I felt the pain of being forced to leave her because my scent put her in too much danger.

This is the story of the quest for Immortality that my life became. The bloody, brutal trials will be worth it... right?

**A.N. read next chapters A.N. please. :)**


	2. Chapter 2 (but sort of 1) Birthright

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own PJO.**

The horrifying beast screeched as it rushed me, claws extended out, wings flapping violently, boosting it towards me at extreme speeds. The lone Stymphalian bird reaked of death and rotting meat, its feathers were of a black metal, that looked like liquid with the light of the moon illuminating it, its beak was bronze and stained with red. It was the biggest I had ever seen, at almost four feet from beak to tail feathers. I jerked to the side to avoid it, but wasn't fast enough to escape its talons scraping my forearm. I scooped my sword from where it fell on the ground, moments before. I swiveled around on my feet, blade already in motion, catching the bird in the neck with a metallic clang and a squawk, it was thrown off balance with a deep slice in its throat. Black blood gurgled out of the wound, as it made a deep choking sound, its beady red as blood eyes frantic and evil staring at me. It made a leap directly at me when I had lowered my sword, its beak was too close to me to bring my sword up and block its path so I did the only thing I could. I grabbed it by the throat holding it at arms length away, it struggled violently, metallic feathers cutting deep gouges and scrapes into my palm and fingers, its talons searched for a way to hurt me even as it still choked on its own blood, its only desire, to kill me along with it. Squawking furiously, it gave me the opening I needed to kill it. Raising my sword and squeezing my other hand painfully, it opened its beak wide and I shoved my sword into its mouth and into its brain, causing it to disappear in an explosion of golden dust. I stumbled back onto my ass and breathed heavily. That had been the last of a gauntlet of monsters to get to where I was. Sphairia, a small island off the coast of Troezen, as they had been known in ancient times. I was after a weapon of my bloodline, of the sea. It had been wielded by one of my brothers millenia ago, and my father told me it was placed under a rock for the next hero to wield it to remove and find. Standing up, I looked at my surroundings, the woods were broken up here but vines and bushes and moss had overgrown the marble of some ancient ruins with broken pillars and floors crumbling. I sheathed my sword and walked forwards, stepping passed the building and gazing out on a valley of rocks and a desert of stone.

"Shit, did it have to be a rock in a sea of rock, Dad?" I swear I heard a chuckle which considering my location was creepy as fuck.

I decided the biggest I could see was the best bet and started making my way to it. The rock was a massive boulder, taller than me and far away. After twenty minutes and several close calls to the Broken Ankle Company, I had reached it and stared at the gigantic piece of stone that stood between me and one of my birthrights. It stood at ten feet from ground level and had more in the dip it sat in. There would be no rolling the rectangular rock. Blood dripped from my hand to the ground, I cringed at the thought of using it to somehow lift this _thing_ in front of me. I placed my good hand on the surface of the rock and tested moving it, of course it didn't budge. I took a step back and took off my shirt, tearing it apart, which wasn't hard after fighting the monsters to get here, and tying strips around my hand. Bouncing on the balls of my feet and swinging my arms, I got ready to put my whole body into lifting the rock. It would have been easy had I been near or even in the sea, but when is life easy?

I stepped up to the rock and loosened my muscles, reaching around and hugging the slab, with knees bent. Had I been fully mortal, I knew it would have been impossible to move, but I had a chance with half of my blood being the blood of the gods, one of the most powerful at that. My arms tensed as I had been able to get a grip around half the rock, my back muscles strained and my legs pushed up. The rock didn't move. Sweat poured down my face and I glared at the rock, before lifting with even more strength in my body. I squeezed my arms harder, trying to get the leverage I needed. The fingers of my bad hand, pained at me, calling me to stip, but the fingers of my other hand dug into the rock. I let out a scream at the inanimate stone. I felt something snap and pushed further, trying to tear my muscles to pieces, but I felt success and heard a groan and a scrape as the rock came up an inch before I had to let go. Growling at the rock in frustration, I reeled back and punched it as hard as I could.

"Fuck!" I yelled out in pain, grasping at my second wounded hand in just the last hour. My knuckles barely had skin on them and the bones felt misplaced. That hadn't been my brightest moment. Sending one last curse at the rock, I moved away, I could feel water under the ground close. It wasn't much but it could heal my hands, I should have done it before, but well, testosterone is a Hades of a hormone. It took five minutes to reach the well of water. I knelt down and placed my hands on the ground and began calling the water from the earth. The familiar tug in my gut let me know my powers were working, and soon I saw the first drops spray out, before finally, blasting the dirt out of its way, the water jumped to splash me in the face. I sighed as the touch of the water almost immediately made me feel like a new man with shit for hands. I commanded the water to surround my cut and bruised hands, as I stood up and made my way back to the rock. My hands healed fully after a minute, almost like having a cheat code to life's ailments. To keep my ADHD mind occupied on my short walk back, I formed the water into a small watery version of a woman, I named her Stacy and used my power to have her walk next to me as I made useless one-sided small talk, until I got back to the rock. I instantly found something interesting, although I had given myself a whole lot of damage, I had caused a whole lot of damage, cracks spiderwebbed out of a fist shaped indent in the rock.

That had been no powers, so now that I had a limited amount of water to use, I could do even more damage. I banished Stacy's form and brought it up to my fist, creating a thin watery strap that wrapped around my hand, I formed a spike at the end that was as sharp as my will could make it. The rock wouldn't hold long now as a grin spread onto my face. Spacing my feet apart for balance and to put my whole body into the next punch, I drilled straight into the indent I had made with my fist earlier. Now that I wasn't in the frustrated rage I had been in earlier, I heard the boom that my spiked gauntlet made as it connected with the rock. The water empowered strike had sunk in deep and caused even wider cracks to appear in the rock surface. I frowned as I realized this would take forever no matter how impressive it was. Plan z. I had one other power that... I didn't want to use because if things went as badly as possible I could sink the whole island and I really didn't want to explain to my dad that i sunk an island. Now that i think about it he probably would have loved it, hah. I reached deeper into my godly side, this was why I deserved the name destroyer, earthquakes could cause mass panic and fear and destruction and death and I could make them happen. I felt the ground rumble as the power bubbled up in my body; I took the kinetic energy in me and focused it in my arm and shoulder. I took the water spike and turned it into a glove to protect my hand from getting destroyed. I grunted as the power grew painful to control and knew I had to let it go before it got to be too big. I launched my fist forward with all the strength and speed I could and got blown back by the explosion of godly energy and shattered rock. I rolled back on the stony ground, and got up looking to the rock I had just pretty much tnt'ed apart. I saw nothing left but pieces of stone scattered around the dent in the ground. I let out a whoop in celebration at having removed the obstacle. Then my celebration turned to confusion at not seeing anything that looked like a weapon.

Scrambling down into the small crater, I searched until I found another hole that had been hidden by the largest stone left. It would be big enough to fit my arm into. I got down on my stomach and reached into the hole, stretching my arm as far as I could until I felt something leather and pulled it up, It was a struggle to lift it as it seemed to be held onto by something, but it gave way much easier than the rock that had been sitting on it. When it appeared out of the hole I found a long bag, It was almost as long as I was. I opened the bag and found that I couldn't see into it.

"What the..." I muttered to myself. Reaching in, I had to put my arm in shoulder deep before my hand touched a metal knob. I grabbed on and pulled it out, grasping the leather hilt, I pulled out the sword of Theseus.

**A.N. New story, idk how often it will be updated or anything, but it was fun and its a little freeing going completely away from the restrictions of canon, zero great prophecies, no camps to get to, just gods demigods monsters and other immortal creatures traversing the lands of earth.**

**As for how it will affect my other story... it won't. i literally sit and write on a whim when i feel like it. if i dont feel like writing that story i'll write here because this is just a playground with the background of a plot being just do some cool crap to get eventually recognized by the Olympian gods as worthy of being immortal, with all the cool stuff like hunting monsters fighting titans romance adventure whatever i come up with or reviewers suggest. (please do suggest situations, people to fight, quests, etc.) i kinda have an inkling to create like a community story, even tho "my" community might be very small u just have to be part of the PJO community here)**

**Also, myths and monsters and canon characters are subject to possible reform or bs'ing through them, It is fanfiction**

**P.S. i might switch to writing in third person, depends.** **if i do i will hopefully be able to edit the chapters that arent third person. which do you prefer to read?**

**Possible rating change to M. T for now to get the most traffic to the story.**

**REVIEW PLEASE. and follow to get updates. :)**

**Peace.**


	3. Chapter 3

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own PJO.**

**(edit: some of this was written in first person and edited into third person, so some of it may seem a little off. idk.)**

"Shit shit shit shit!" Percy cursed as he ran.

As soon as he had pulled the sword from the bag the ground started crumbling and in the middle of the crater, a hand appeared from the hole. Now he was running from a super tall and skinny humanoid creature that doesn't seem to like that he took the sword. Looking back he stared into its red eyes and froze for a second. Because of the distraction he lost his footing and tumbled across the ground. The creature who he could now see was an unfortunate mix of humanoid and naked, leaped toward him, its long fingernail claws extended out to kill. At the last second Percy was able to roll away and scramble to his feet. Before he could start moving, he felt a hand slam into his side and was sent flying into a tree. His breath flew out of his lungs and he collapsed on the ground, dazed. He heard a shuffling of feet close by and played dead. He had managed to hold on to his sword somehow and planned on using it to throw a surpise party.

The shuffling got closer and he stopped breathing. He could its breath on his neck and sensed its nails coming close when he made his move. Gripping his sword tighter, Percy flung his body to the side, crashing into its legs causing it to stumble back and give him room to try to get upright. He was halfway up when it sent its clawed fingers after him again.

_Shlink! **R****eeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhh! **_

Its hand and forearm lay on the ground bleeding out while it sctambled away trying to grab its stump with its good hand but the claws were getting in the way. Percy stood up and chased after it, sword held ready and mind cleared. It was quick work to decapitate it after that. The worst part was that it didn't disintegrate into golden dust after it was killed like regular monsters normally do. His blade was stained with red blood, and so was the ground. His ribs ached as he pressed a hand against them. Percy had to get to the water to heal and to get his next task from Poseidon. He found the bag that had held the sword for ages and replaced it with his old sword, sheathing the new sword as the sheath resized itself to the much longer blade, and he moved on.

After Percy found his way back to the ruins, he spotted a metallic glint on the ground. Bending down he found scattered feathers from the Stymphalian bird and picked one up. It was a glossy black but as hard as steel, he tried to bend it and pricked a finger. He sighed at the sight of more of his blood. Percy couldn't wait for it to be completely golden, the flecks were not enough but it would be a long time until then. For now he gathered the feathersteel blades and gently placed them in his bag.

It was a short walk to get to a beach from there, and the sight instantly calmed his thoughts and the ocean in his veins pumped through him like adrenaline. He wanted to spend so much more time in the ocean than he had been able to so far in his life. Sitting down in the low tide, He let the water surround him and heal his wounds.

'_Now to get dear old dad's attention._' He thought to himself.

Pulling out his sword, he laid the blade against the palm of his left hand and pulled, cutting into it.

"For Poseidon!" Percy called out to the ocean as his blood dripped into the water. "Show me my next quest!"

With that his vision blacked and his face fell into the water.

His body floated out to sea.

**(LINE BREAK)**

Layla was confused.

Her father had just dropped the bombshell on her that she was a demigod and he kicked her out of their-now just his house. She was pissed at her father and mother. If she was a goddess why wouldn't she have been their for her and helped her throughout her shitty life? Growing up constantly harassed because of her learning disabilities and looked at as nothing but a beautiful piece of arm candy with shit for brains and a nasty temper that got her in detention constantly. And now she gets told that gods are alive and thriving and she's the daughter of the love goddess who had found nothing but hate in her life. Tears forced their way out of her eyes and she hugged her knees to her chest.

Sitting on the pier, she thought the violent water matched her emotions perfectly. All jumbled up and tossing all over the place but always coming back to angry. She started to get worried when the einfs started to spin around her when there had been nothing but a light sea breeze before. Layla stood up and had to shield her eyes from the wind and rain and seawater splashing up. She carefully backed up, when her eyes caught on to a massive form rising up from the water with bubbles popping up all around it. She tried to scream but found her voice blocked by her heart beating in her throat. Then a much smaller figure appeared, it was a boy clinging on to the monster's side.

**(LINE BREAK)**

Percy's eyes flew open and he inhaled a massive amount of water as he snapped out of the dream. Poseidon had set his next task ahead of him and the water had carried him close. Somewhere off the coast of Florida. Letting his body sink to the ocean floor, he threw his senses out, looking for the beast that had escaped the prisons of the Marianas Trench. It was a seamonster that had killed nearly fifty merpeople before it made its escape, but now it was Percy's job to kill it and send its dust to Tartarus. He found something floating through the waters, fast. Gathering the currents and his power over the water itself, he blasted off in the direction of the presence. Something was off about it, it was like something with the energy leak that all monsters gave off but the physical presence was much smaller than it should be. He was closing in when he saw an inky blot close by.

Pushing off faster than before, he reached the blot and found... a small octopus. Percy reached into its brain to read its "thoughts" and found nothing but an emotional reaction, it was excited relieved and scared all at once. Then the fear skyrocketed and it swam away as fast as it could.

"It's right behind me isn't it?" Before he even looked, Percy used the water to blast himself to the right and barely avoided a massive tentacle that had tried to grab and squeeze him to death. Following the tentacle to the body, he froze for a second to soak in the sight before him.

"So I'm fighting the fucking Kra..." He had to dodge another tentacle that was faster than it had any right to be. The Kraken looked like an upside down Weeping Willow with way more tentacles than an octopus and a cavernous mouth that held rows and rows of teeth that looked nastier than a shark's. He could see four eyes and one of them had a trident sticking out of it and what looked like tar had leaked out of the wound and Percy knew that would be the weak spot. It had other wounds but they were barely scratches to the monster's body but would be a gaping wound to anything of a normal size. Unsheathing his sword, he prepared to attack. Dodging one last attempted tentacle swipe, Percy switched his momentum and swam _toward _the massive thing. He wouldn't be intimidated by something else in his own domain, the sea was his heritage and Percy planned to collect but for now he had to prove himself worthy of it and this stupid thing was in his way!

His senses picked up five tentacles collecting in front of and around him. He readied his blade and as soon as two struck out at him, he barrel rolled and lashed out with his sword, the blade of Theseus practically singing in the water, the Celestial bronze glowing and creating an arc of light in the water before it reached one of the tentacles and sliced throught it like it was barely there. The beast screeched and his ears popped from the sound, leaving a ringing as all he could hear. Pushing forward despite his sudden deafness, He didn't need to hear or see really when in the water. The last three that had been prepared, sprang out in a triangle formation trying to trap him. Avoiding two of them he landed on the third and bent his knees to spring forward and launch himself at its body faster than before. Its eyes that glowed red were glaring at him in anger when he felt his side collapse from the force of the hidden strike that he wasn't able to dodge. Percy would have screamed if he could have gotten air out of his lungs, but all that came out was something like a wheeze and a groan. He came to his senses after being nearly destroyed in one hit by this beast and felt his anger take control, forcing himself to force water that served better than air into his lungs. He could feel the damage already being repaired but it would take at least ten minutes and that was time he didn't have. Seeing another tentacle reaching out to grab him, he raised his sword to protect himself when he saw it wasn't in his hand. It was closing in fast and he needed to protect himself!

Reflexes took over and he used the water to harden in a thin vertical line in the path of the suction-cup-covered limb that was flying at him. The momentum behind the tentacle was enough to cut it off with a blade of _water_. He had to duck to avoid the amputated limb and had to cover his ears at the second screech that tore at his nearly healed eardrums. Percy could feel the weak connection to his sword and used the water to summon it to him like Thor's hammer in the comic books.

_'I wonder if the Norse gods are real?' _He cursed his attention span as he bent out of the way of the massive body that nearly slammed into him full force. Percy was now under the beast and doing his best to stay hidden as it seemed not to know where he was now. Where it moved, he used the water to move himself along with it as he bought time for his injuries to heal. His luck ran out as before he could even react, one of the eighteen remaining tentacles snagged his legs and squeezed painfully.

"Ahhhhh!" He screamed as he was pulled upside down in front of what served as its face and he saw his opportunity. Slashing out with his sword, Percy was flung to the side as he scored a clean hit on one of its eyes and his luck struck again seeing the eye with the trident sticking out of it right in front of him. He ignored the pain and swam to it as fast as h could, planting his feet next to the dead eye. It reminded him of the guy from Pirates of the Caribbean with the fork in his fake eye but this was a monster not some undying pirate and the fork was a massive trident. He grabbed hold of the weapon and pulled, putting all of his strength into it as both of them screamed in pain before the massive eye popped out of its socket and the beast lurched up, breaking the surface of the water. Percy knew he was going to lose his balance and position if he did that before he made his move. So he struck like a snake and stabbed his blade into its empty eye socket and deep into its brain. Tar exploded out and drenched his body as the Kraken thrashed around wildly, screaming to try to hold onto its life pointlessly as even now Percy could see parts of it dissolving into dust. As its last act of defiance it wrapped two tentacles around his body and flung him through the air. His back crashed into a building and broke through it, knocking the air out of his lungs again and flaring all the pain he had gone through the last two days back up. His vision swam in and out of focus before it went black.

**(LINE BREAK)**

Layla rushed to the little shack shop that was placed strangely on the beach. Her heart beat fast, there was no way they had survived that, she thought. But she had to check, this was her only link to her new life and she needed to find out more. She stumbled around the back of it where the boy had crashed and stopped moving when she saw the ornate blade that had stabbed itself into the sand. Gingerly she walked to the broken wall and peered inside, eyes widening at the sight of surfboards smashed and lying all over the place but mostly at the sight of the boy lying motionless on his back. His shirt was ripped to shreds, plainly showing his red and black and blue side with one of the ribs sticking out of the skin, and his face had blood dripping over his eyes and down his forehead.

Scrambling towards the body she desperately felt for a pulse before finding a very weak one, but she leaned down and put her ear close to his nose and mouth, he wasn't breathing.

"No, no, no!" Her own pulse skyrocketed and she panicked trying to think back to any of the health lessons she had learned. She couldn't do chest compressions with his chest already mangled. All she could think of was mouth to mouth but she didn't know if that could work without chest compressions. Pinching his nose and placing her mouth over his she breathed her own breath into his body. And got rewarded with a mouth full of seawater and raspy coughs from the boy. She spluttered the water out of her mouth, desperately trying to rid herself of the idea of all the disgusting things that could be in her mouth right then. Once she had settled down she found herself staring into the brightest green eyes she had ever seen and she froze. His lips moved but no sound came out. He coughed some more and this time blood speckled his lips. His eyes yelled out in panic to her own and finally she heard what he was trying to say.

"W-w-at-er!" His voice was raw and dry. "P-put m-e in the wat-" And his eyes rolled into the back of his head which slumped back onto the floor. Layla stared at the boy who must be insane but... he must have some connection to the water if he was able to survive the fight with the giant seamonster she had just seen. She broke out of her trance and moved to him slowly. Her instincts screamed at her to not move him, to call 9-1-1 and get him doctors, but there was something else that told her that was a bad idea. So she reached down to grab him by the armpits, trying not to think of how painful it was for him or the blood that she was getting all over her clothes. She grunted as she took the full weight of his body onto herself, he was a lot heavier than he looked. She was able to carry him to the sand when she had to set him down and start dragging him to the water. She had never focused much on working out and now her muscles were paying the price, as was the unconscious boy she was dragging along.

Finally she made it and dropped his body into the shallow waves. He started to float out and she was barely able to grab hold of him. She sat down in the sand holding his head out of the water, but she almost dropped him again, when she saw something crazy. All the cuts and bruises were healing where the water touched. It created scar tissue before her eyes, and washed the blood and ... other substances off his body, as it almost seemed to carress him and try to pull him deeper. It was twenty minutes later when she finally took a closer look at him. He couldn't be any older than she was, but his muscles were more developed than any eighteen year olds she had seen and his face seemed to be carved from marble. Her eyes moved to his body and she stared at all the scars littered around his torso. Some looked years old and others brand new, there was one that cut diagonally along his stomach and was thicker than all the others. Her finger had barely touched the scar and he shot up, gasping for breath and coughing as he stumbled in the shallow water before he fell back down a little away from her, chest still heaving.

Tentatively, Layla stepped to him, gazing down in curiosity and confusion. His eyes were wild and unfocused as he stared back at her. But soon his breathing calmed and he closed his eyes.

"Who are you?" His voice was quiet. Layla couldn't make herself speak as she didn't really know who she was anymore. But his eyes opened and focused on hers, coaxing an answer out of her.

"Layla." She mumbled.

"Layla... Thank you." She didn't respond right away. Then the words flooded out.

"Who are you? What was that thing?! Why were you fighting it? Oh my G-" And the boy had the nerve to chuckle.

"Oh gods, I shouldn't have laughed." He grimaced, holdinh his stomach that hadn't completely come back to perfect just yet.

"Are you okay?" She asked quieter than the last questions.

"Eh. Not quite yet, but I'll be fine soon. And, my name's Percy Jackson. Before I answer the other questions you're gonna have to answer a couple so I know what I can tell you. What do you know already?"

"I know about the myths being real if that's what you mean. But I just found out earlier tonight."

"Oh, okay, that's a Hades of an introduction to our world then, huh?" His grin flashed in and out.

"So, like I said, I'm Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, King of the seas, creator of horses and bunch of other titles, I can't bring myself to think up right now." He struggled to sit up. "And that thing was the Kraken and I killed it because my father sent me on a quest to do just that."

Ignoring the pain in his stomach he shakily stood up, now having to ignore the pain in his previously broken ankle too. Layla was trying not to look at Percy's half naked body but found herself stealing glances and blushing.

"Sorry about my uh- shirt situation, kinda got torn to bits, He shrugged off the remaining pieces of cloth from his shoulders.

"I-its okay." She looked again as he turned away from her and she found even more scars covering his back, but more noticeable was the tattoo. A trident that followed his spine all the way from the neck to the small of his back with one of the prongs finishing at his neck and the other two spreading over to his shoulders. It was a green black color and expertly detailed.

"Why do you have so many?" She asked bluntly.

"Wha-" He started to ask before he found her staring at his scars. "Oh, well I've been fighting monsters all over the place for about six years now, so I just kind of collected them. I guess. They don't hurt, most of the time." Without thinking, he rubbed the biggest one on his stomach, thinking back to fighting and killing the minotaur.

"So are you a demigod or a clear-sighted?" Percy asked.

"Demigod, I guess, that's what my Da- father told me." Her voice turned bitter at the end. "What's a clear-sighted?" She asked.

"A mortal that can see through the Mist."

"What mist?"

Percy closed his eyes thinking of how long this would take.

**(THREE HOURS LATER)**

"So there really is no safe place for people like us? We're just left to fend for ourselves?" He shook his head and bent down to retrieve his sword and sheathed it.

"One thing the gods can't do is protect their kids. They can send them into plenty of danger though, apparently." His grin looked a little too thin to be real.

Layla didn't know how to react to everything she had just learned. The world she had been living in for eighteen years had suddenly been blown up and twisted into a strange fantasy horror world.

"So do you have a place to stay tonight?" His voice broke passed her spiralling thoughts.

"No, I-I don't have anywhere to go." Her voice was subdued.

"Well, we should get going. I think my dad has a little place near here."

"You think?"

"Yea, more like a feeling, but think inspires a tiny bit more confidence." This time his lopsided grin showed fully and Layla's breath got caught for a moment.

"After a while you'll get a sense for your own, uhh, energy signature? For demigods it is pretty much the same as their parent just a little dialed down."

"Before we leave..." Percy cut himself off, stepping closer to the water letting the waves lap at his feet. He closed his eyes and held his hand out.

"Percy? What are you do-?" Layla's eyes widened, seeing a section of the water start to rise and bubbles appearing, then they spilled to the sides and flowed back into the water and in its place was left a bag.

"Okay, let's go!" And Layla followed wordlessly.

The sky was dark and her feet were tired by the time Percy said they were nearly there. She had collapsed in the sand of the beach when they saw the sign marking off a private beach.

Percy turned around to find Layla lying on her back and aiming a middle finger at him.

"Come on, we're literally right here!" He walked back to her and stared down at her.

"I can't feel my legs, anymore, so."

"Okay then." Percy bent down and picked her up, throwing her over his shoulder.

"Hey! Put me down!" She cried out.

"Do you wanna sleep out in the sand or in a god's crash pad?" She went quiet but he figured he would be getting another middle finger soon.

The crash pad of the sea god was probably worth at least ten million dollars before adding on the private beach and fantastic views. Then there were the priceless ancient artifacts inside that were little more than the gods attic junk to them anymore. But the only thing on Percy's mind was getting to bed. Beds were truly an invention worthy of having Hephaestus' name plastered all over them. He had already found one for Layla and now he went to find his father's room.

After getting lost a couple times he found the master bedroom and walked in, finding it to be as big as a hotel lobby. Along the grey green marble walls he found portraits of many people he would never know and some he would only hear of and others he instinctively knew. Like his stepmother that he had never met, but the most surprising was a portrait of himself, he was smiling and young, carefree, splashing in a pool. It was equal parts creepy and endearing.

There were glass displays of suits of armor from ages long past and there were statues, that had never broken down from old times, of heroes and some gods and even mortals. He barely payed attention to these things as he passed by them, instead his eyes and total attention were drawn to the biggest bed he had ever seen. When he crashed into it, he felt a warmth that he had never known before and his brain immediately closed off from the waking world.

**(NEXT MORNING)**

Layla's eyes opened only with great effort put into the simple action. Her legs ached for her to just stay in the bed that was nothing short of heavenly. She felt different than the day before. That's when the events of last night came crashing back to her brain. Her muscles ached in full force and her head was pounding. Her stomach growled and she groaned. Getting out of bed was the last thing she wanted but she forced herself to. She didn't remember anything about the house they were in, just that Percy had taken her there. Speaking of.

_'Where is Percy?' _She thought. Of course she was happy she hadn't woken up with him in the same bed, but she could already tell that she was going to get lost as soon as she stepped into the crazy long hallway. It took five minutes to find stairs that went down, and by that time her stomach felt like a black hole trying to suck anything and everything into it. When she reached the bottom of the stairs her nose picked up on the glorious scent of bacon cooking close by. She practically ran passed the massive living room and into what she found to be the kitchen, and she found Percy standing before a stove. She almost didn't recognized him from the mess he had been. He was no longer coated in sand, and he had a new shirt on that hadn't been ripped to pieces.

"Good morning!" He said when he finally noticed her. "Hungry?" Layla's stomach decided to answer for her.

**(LINE BREAK)**

When Percy woke up, he thought he would have been sore but his body had never felt better or his mind clearer, outside of the ocean anyway. He stayed in bed for ten minutes just thinking about what he wanted to do that day. He decided he would take the day at its pace and maybe just laze around his dad's place all day.

After he showered and borrowed (read: stole) some of his dad's clothes he made his way to the kitchen to get some breakfast. Luckily Poseidon either kept the fridge stocked or had a magic fridge... he decided to go with magic fridge cuz that would be awesome to own. His thoughts turned to the girl he had met last night. Layla. His first impression of her, after she had saved his life, had been that she was beautiful. The curiosity about their world was as endearing as it was tiring, but he couldn't have denied her, she had saved his life and he had a lot to do to repay her still. He would help her get acclimated to this life and train her to be able to defend herself even though her scent wouldn't be strong enough to attract many monsters. He had bacon and eggs cooking and was just planning on waking her up when he felt her presence behind him.

"Good morning! Hungry?" He grinned when he heard her stomach rumble.

"Take a seat. Breakfast will be ready shortly." He gestured to the kitchen table, and she quietly made her way to sit down.

"So," She began, "It wasn't a crazy dream. That all happened?"

"Yup. It's a lot to take in, you good?"

"I think so, I mean, my life was nothing special so, this can maybe spice things up, or screw it up worse." She mumbled the last part out but Percy caught it.

"It's rough, for those that are from the strongest gods you get cool powers and all that, but you have to leave your mortal family young so they don't get hurt and you never get to know your immortal one very well. And the monsters come after you more. And the less powerful ones just takes longer for them to leave their families and they don't get many of the cool things about this life, but they're in a little less danger, it's a shit deal either way."

"How many other demigods have you met?"

Percy placed a plate full of bacon and eggs between them on the table.

"A lot, some of them form their own little societies, there's a lot of immortals out there and way more demigods than they have any right to create. Unfortunately some of the demigods want to _impress_ their parents by... killing other demigods of their parents rivals, so you have to be careful. It's a kill or be killed kind of world for a lot of us." Layla looked horrified, she would have thought that all demigods would stick together to face monsters and enemies, not become enemies to each other.

"Have you-" She couldn't finish her sentence.

"I try not to, but sometimes when a child of a god is after you, well, we all have survival instincts cranked up to 20. That's why a lot of us are diagnosed with ADHD, our bodies and minds are unconsciously prepared for a fight at all times."

Faces flashed before his eyes, some he had names to others he didn't.

"How about we save the rest of the depressing crap til after we've eaten, yea?" His smile was an olive branch that she accepted.

"What's your plan?" He asked.

"Plan? I don't think I have one yet. Where'd you learn to cook so well?" She was savoring every bite.

"My mom taught me some tricks when I was young, and I got sick of fast food pretty quick so I, uh, stole some cookbooks from a library. I don't even wanna think about what the overdue charge is now." She laughed at the thought of the very _athletic_ looking demigod in front of her with glasses and an apron on, studying a cookbook with flour all over the place.

"Hey I can eat all of the rest by myself if you're just gonna make fun of me!" His grin showed he was just playing, so she made a show of dragging the plate of food closer to her. After they both laughed there was a short silence.

"Thank you."

"For what?" Layla asked.

"You saved my life, most likely. I don't think I could have gotten to the water to heal myself, so thanks." His eyes flashed to hers for a second and she saw the sincerity.

"Oh, you're welcome; I couldn't just let you die now could I?" She gave a shy smile.

"Many might have just run away, but you ran toward me. Kindness is a rarity in my life."

After another break in the conversation she continued an earlier question.

"So what's your plan?"

"Well, I figured I would take a break today and relax, it's not often I can stay at a place like this.I will move on soon, get another quest from Poseidon, kill more monsters, return some weapon to some obscure sea deity, wherever the currents take me. But I also owe this girl who helped me out recently, so I plan on making it up to her first."

"What do you mean?"

"Well I can't just leave you high and dry, I can get you training, maybe find you one of the good societies I talked about earlier, they're not perfect but they don't kill each other." He shrugged like 'what are you gonna do?'

"That's- what about you?" She asked with a bit of hope in her eyes. "Can I come with you?"

"I-" He started then closed his eyes. "Where I go, a lot of the worst of ours follow, or I follow the worst. I can't always protect you and you won't always be able to follow, but I don't know. Let's leave that decision for later, okay?" The other reason why he didn't want her along was attachment, to this world and to someone who his ultimate goal would be to leave behind.

"Yeah... okay." She looked down and Percy felt like shit.

"Look, we can stay here for today and one more night, and we can decide things like that after a night's sleep." He knew he would give in if she pushed the next day, he knew he was soft in that way. He liked people, too much for his own good sometimes, because he just wanted them to be happy, and with her he could already feel the attraction. She had saved his life the first time he saw her and then she was so... he didn't know how to describe it. She wasn't jaded like so many others from their part of the world. She had been kicked from her mortal family, and he knew no demigod had a kind childhood. But she hadn't let it bring her down. She still looked hopeful. Plus she was very easy on his eyes. Her long brown hair with small curls, reminded him of his mother, and it framed her heart-shaped face perfectly, her skin was as smooth as water. Her eyes changed from a deep blue to a light green with the changes of light, freckles dotted her cheeks and her lips were light pink that looked as soft as a rose petal. She had attitude if she wanted to bring it out and she was clearly determined after last night's walk, following, pretty much a stranger to another stranger's house. He sighed, knowing it would be difficult.

"You don't have any other clothes right?" He asked and she nodded.

"We can go into the closest town or city and find a shop if you want?"

"I don't have any money either." She looked a little embarrassed.

"Don't worry about that, I got it covered." His grin made her think he was gonna rob at least three banks.

"I don't want you to steal clothes for me!"

"Hah! No no no," He reached into his pocket and pulled out a credit card from his wallet, "I don't need to steal much anymore, only desperate times. This covers the rest, although I guess some would say I stole it in the first place... semantics."

"You stole someone's credit card?!" She looked scared but more for him. Queue another laugh from the son of Poseidon.

"It was given to me, but the people that gave it to me didn't expect me to escape. 'Lotus Casino'." He read from the card. "Otherwise known as the lair of the lotus eaters, they attract people like flies to honey, then give them anything they want but the people never leave, eventually they forget who they were, what they'd done, who they loved, and just live life in the hotel, as the prison guards pretend to take care of your every need when they're really... I don't know, sucking your life out of you. I went there on one of my quests, to rescue a couple of my cousins, good people by the way, broke out with a black hole debit card. Endless money, pretty much."

Her eyes looked ready to roll back in her head.

"Wow, okay. I really could have used you as a friend during high school." She laughed.

"Rough time with school?"

"Yeah, never fit in with any of the cliques or got great grades."

"Same! I got kicked out of so many schools when I was young it wasn't even funny."

"How'd you manage that?" She looked very curious to learn more about him.

"Let's just say field trips, canons, and school buses, and me do not mix well." His grin was a little evil now.

"You blew up a school bus?!" She asked in shock.

"Yea, and there was the time I dropped a class into a shark tank. That was fun. I should go back and talk to the sharks."

Layla wanted to keep talking but Percy stood up and grabbed their plates.

"You ready to see what my dad has in his garage?"

**A.N. So that was my longest chapter, i've ever written. It was fun to write, and yea i'm switching to third person, it is way more comfortable to write for me.**

**Let me know if you think the chapter was good, I really don't want to have a personal opinion other than being ok with posting it.**

I** expanded a bit on what this world of demigods is so I hope readers enjoy my idea.**

**Next story updated will be my other one that is called Power. Give it a read if you want to.** **It is much less of an AU than this is.**

**So please fav follow and most importantly review, if you enjoy this story so far tell me why or what I can do to improve reading experience.**

**Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!**

**Peace**.


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